Bianchi R.A.C.Ribeiro C.H.C.Costa A.H.R.2019-08-192019-08-192008BIANCHI, R. A. C.; Ribeiro, Carlos H. C.; COSTA, Anna Helena Reali. Accelerating autonomous learning by using heuristic selection of actions. Journal of Heuristics, v. 14, p. 135-168, 2008.1381-1231https://repositorio.fei.edu.br/handle/FEI/1232This paper investigates how to make improved action selection for online policy learning in robotic scenarios using reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms. Since finding control policies using any RL algorithm can be very time consuming, we propose to combine RL algorithms with heuristic functions for selecting promising actions during the learning process. With this aim, we investigate the use of heuristics for increasing the rate of convergence of RL algorithms and contribute with a new learning algorithm, Heuristically Accelerated Q-learning (HAQL), which incorporates heuristics for action selection to the Q-Learning algorithm. Experimental results on robot navigation show that the use of even very simple heuristic functions results in significant performance enhancement of the learning rate. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.Acesso RestritoArtigo10.1007/s10732-007-9031-5Action selectionHeuristic functionReinforcement learningRobot navigation